Cabinets · Service

Cabinet painting, which is really a question about adhesion

Anyone can put paint on a door. Whether it is still there in five years is decided by what your doors are made of and how they were prepared. We match you with finishers who know the difference.

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In short

What is cabinet painting?

Painting cabinets means applying an opaque coating over the doors, drawer fronts and face frames, covering the grain entirely and giving access to any colour. It is the cheapest route to a visually different kitchen. Whether it lasts has almost nothing to do with the colour and almost everything to do with two things: what your doors are made of, and how thoroughly the kitchen grease was removed before the primer went on. A typical kitchen takes about a week.

Triggers

Signs you need cabinet painting

Doors in sound condition whose colour or wood tone is the thing you dislike
An oak or pine kitchen where the grain itself is what reads as dated
Cabinets that have already been painted once and now need a proper job
You want a two-tone kitchen — different colours on the uppers and the island — which paint makes easy
A budget that will not stretch to new fronts, on boxes and doors that are structurally fine
A rental or a house you plan to sell, where visible improvement per pound spent is the priority

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The job

How cabinet painting actually works

Identify the substrate, because it dictates the whole system

Real wood, MDF, thermofoil and melamine each need a different primer and a different expectation. Thermofoil is a vinyl film and paint has very little to grip. Melamine is a hard, non-porous resin surface. Both are paintable with the right bonding primer and neither forgives a general-purpose one.

Watch for: The same primer quoted for every kitchen. It is the clearest sign that the substrate was not identified, and substrate is the variable that decides whether the coating survives.
Degrease properly — twice, and then again around the range

Years of cooking put a fine film of grease on every surface, and it is concentrated on the doors nearest the hob and above the extractor. Paint will not bond through it. Proper degreasing is repeated, done with a purpose-made cleaner, and rinsed.

Watch for: A quick wipe with household cleaner. Adhesion failure from residual grease is the single most common reason painted cabinets fail, and it always begins on the doors either side of the range.
Remove, label and abrade every surface

Doors, drawer fronts and hardware come off and are labelled to their openings. Every surface is sanded to give the primer a key — not to remove the old finish, which is what refinishing does, but to break the sheen so the coating can bite.

Watch for: Doors painted in place on their hinges. It leaves paint on the hinge, an unpainted strip at the edge, and runs down the face frame, and every one of those is visible for the life of the kitchen.
Prime with the right product for the substrate

The primer is the layer doing the actual work. Bonding primers grip difficult surfaces; stain-blocking primers stop tannin from oak and knotty timber bleeding through a pale topcoat, which is a genuine and very visible failure.

Watch for: A pale colour going onto oak or knotty pine without a stain-blocking primer. The tannin bleed appears as yellow-brown patches weeks later and the only fix is to prime and repaint.
Spray the topcoat — in a shop if possible

Sprayed cabinet enamel is the finish people are actually picturing: smooth, hard and without brush texture. Doing it in a controlled shop environment gives a cleaner result than a masked-off kitchen, though good on-site work with proper containment is achievable.

Watch for: Wall paint on cabinets. Cabinet coatings are formulated to cure hard and to resist handling and cleaning; a standard interior paint on a door front stays soft and marks with a fingernail.
Cure before use, and expect the first weeks to be delicate

Cabinet enamels are dry to touch quickly and fully cured much later. Fronts closed against bumpers too early can stick and pull the film, and the finish reaches its final hardness over weeks rather than days.

Watch for: A crew rehanging doors on the last afternoon with no cure guidance. Ask for the manufacturer's cure time and add bumpers only once the finish has hardened.

Money

What does cabinet painting cost?

Cabinet painting is priced by door and drawer count plus the face frames, and it is the least expensive of the keep-the-boxes options. Sprayed shop finishing costs more than on-site brush and roller and is worth the difference on doors. See the cabinets cost guide for current ranges.

See the full cabinet painting cost guide — by material, size and region →

Straight answer

When cabinet painting is the wrong call

Everyone else ranking for this is paid when you say yes. Here's when you shouldn't.

Your thermofoil doors are already peeling. Paint over lifting vinyl film follows the film, and the film keeps lifting. Once thermofoil has failed at the edges the doors need replacing; a coating just conceals it briefly.
The boxes or doors are water-damaged. Swollen particleboard and delaminated fronts do not become sound under paint. They swell further as the coating traps residual moisture, and the finish cracks along exactly the damage you were covering.
You want the timber to stay visible. Painting is a one-way decision on real wood in practical terms — getting back to a stained finish afterwards means stripping paint out of the grain, which is expensive and rarely fully successful.
You cannot give up the kitchen for a week. Doors are off, surfaces are masked, and the smell and dust are real. It is less disruptive than a remodel and more disruptive than most people are told when they book.
The layout or the storage is the actual complaint. Paint changes appearance only. A kitchen that does not work will not work in a different colour, and the money is better aimed at the layout.
You want it done in two days for a viewing. Rushing the degreasing and the cure is exactly how painted cabinets fail, and they fail visibly, at the handles and beside the range, within the first year.

Your options

Types of cabinet painting

Painted versus stained

The decision this page sits opposite, taken side by side.

Paint grade cabinetry

What makes a door genuinely suitable for an opaque finish.

Colour selection

Whites, greys, navies and greens against the countertops and floor you are keeping.

Two-tone kitchens

The effect paint makes cheap and everything else makes expensive.

Compare cabinets options side by side →

Before you sign

What to check when hiring for cabinet painting

What primer are you using, and why that one for my doors?

The answer tells you whether the substrate was identified. Bonding primer for thermofoil and melamine, stain-blocking for oak — a single universal answer is a warning.
How are you degreasing, and how many times?

The most common cause of failure and the easiest thing to skimp on, because nobody can see whether it was done until the paint lifts.
Are the doors sprayed, and are they done here or at a shop?

Sprayed shop finishing is what produces the smooth, hard, factory-looking result. On-site brushwork is a different product at a different price.
What coating are you using — and is it a cabinet enamel?

Wall paint on cabinet doors stays soft and marks. Ask for the product name and check it is intended for cabinetry.
How long before I can use the kitchen normally, and when can bumpers go on?

Cure time is not drying time. Doors closed too early stick to bumpers and pull the film, which is a repair rather than a touch-up.
What does the warranty cover, and does it include adhesion?

Adhesion failure is the defect that matters. A warranty covering only colour and coverage is not covering the thing likely to go wrong.

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Local pros

Cabinet Painting near you

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Related work

Often done at the same time

Cabinet Refinishing

The stained alternative, where the grain stays

Cabinet Refacing

When the door style needs to change, not just the colour

Cabinet Repair

Damage has to be repaired before it is coated

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FAQ

Cabinet Painting — questions people ask

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How long does painted cabinetry last?

A properly prepared and sprayed kitchen with a genuine cabinet enamel should look good for many years, with wear appearing first at the handle edges and around the sink. A badly prepared one starts failing within the first year, and it always begins in the same places: the doors either side of the range, where grease was heaviest. The variable is preparation, not the paint, and it is invisible at handover.

Can thermofoil or melamine cabinets be painted?

Yes, with the right bonding primer and thorough preparation — but with two conditions. The film or laminate must be intact, because paint over a lifting edge lifts with it. And the expectation should be a good result rather than a factory one: paint on a non-porous surface is always working harder than paint on wood. If the thermofoil is already peeling near the range or the dishwasher, replace the doors instead.

Should cabinets be sprayed or brushed?

Sprayed, if the finish quality matters to you. Spraying gives the smooth, texture-free surface that people picture when they imagine painted cabinets, and it lays down an even film on profiled doors that a brush cannot match. Brush and roller work is legitimate, cheaper, and visibly different — you will see the texture in raking light. The common compromise is spraying the doors in a shop and brushing the face frames in place.

Do I have to sand cabinets before painting?

Yes, but the purpose is often misunderstood. You are not removing the old finish — that is refinishing, a different and much bigger job. You are breaking the sheen so the primer can grip. Skipping it is a shortcut that shows up as paint peeling off in sheets when something catches an edge. Degreasing before sanding matters just as much, because sanding a greasy door simply spreads the grease around.

Can painted cabinets be stained again later?

In practice, not well. Paint sits in the grain of open-grained timber and getting it all out means aggressive stripping and sanding, which risks going through veneer and rarely leaves a surface that stains evenly. Treat painting solid wood as a decision you are committing to. If you are unsure, that uncertainty is itself an argument for refinishing or new doors instead.